How magnificent! cried the first of us.
How banal! cried the next of us.
Both! cried the last of us.
And then we gave Dolphin a round of applause, he was totally hoarse.
12
HELENA’S NEW CONDITION. THE WELL AND WHAT’S NOT IN IT. BOHLER’S NUMBERS. “LATER.”
We went down to the forge and tossed our silver ornaments into the fire, our tribe was finished. I’m keepin my eagle, Bohler said, he’s all anyone would take from me … nothing else is worth it. I kept my Black Madonna. Everyone kept their one strong thing, the rest ended up in the furnace. Whoever felt the need trimmed his mane. Our hair twisted in the flames, probably crackled, we couldn’t hear it. I seized the opportunity to cut my nails. When we came out of the forge, Helena was in the courtyard.
Where’s David?
That’s what we were about to ask you.
She gasped.
You let him leave …
We explained what happened.
I gotta go after him, she said. Maybe he went home. To them. The Losíns.
That hadn’t occurred to us. Tell me the address.
It also never occurred to us, though, to ask what village, what mountains, our brother was from.
It’s urgent … said Helena.
Well, maybe come summer … some mountains, Bohler said hesitantly.
By summer he’ll be born already. David and I are having a child, said Helena.
Neither proud nor alarmed, she was just informing us.
So he doesn’t know? I asked.
That guy doesn’t know anything right now, said Micka.
Bohler stepped on his foot. You oughta find him, he told Helena, but maybe later … an don’t just stand there, go tell Lady Laos goodbye, we’re wrappin things up here … aren’t you goin home?
Home. Hah. Said Helena. With this thing, she touched her cheek. The Elixir, oddly enough, hadn’t helped or hurt, either way.
Helena honey … Bohler went on … get some plastic whatcha-macallit, go away … we’ve got a Zone waitin for us, you can’t be here if you’re expecting, you know that. You gotta go right now. The baby might get hurt.
There was nothing we could do to help. We had to stay and wait for Rudolf, finish things up with the Zone. We watched our pseudodroogina leave, alone and empty-handed, the same way she had come to us. Carrying the new life inside her away, far from the Zone, I hoped. Wait up, Bohler ran after her, need any cash, you’re goin to the Laosters’, right? You are, aren’t cha?
I don’t need anything, she shoved him out of her way.
Helena, hey, so later! I shouted.
Later, said Micka.
Yeah, take care. Later.
She knew that word of parting, she knew what it was about.
She walked out of the building and went away.
We stood around the courtyard, smoking and waiting for Rudolf. Talk about a comedown, huh? Sharky said hoarsely. You can say that again, Micka replied. Got your ticket yet? Yep. Said Sharky. Hey, Potok, where’re you goin?
I figure I’ll stay here a while. There’s a girl I need to find.
You were sayin you found a sister, Sharky walked over to me. What’s she look like?
Hey, that’s my sis you’re talkin about.
What’s she look like, for Chrissake? What’s up? I’m goin away an I wanna know about you guys, Sharky said.
I described her. Knowingly I spoke of her relatively slight yet firm figure. In plain terms I referred to her hips in stride. And I said all sorts of things about her gorgeous face with its squarely prominent cheekbones. About her paleness, indicating a soul in struggle. I made a comment or two also about her fluttering lashes, nor did I leave out the occasional flashes of green. I spoke of her tender breasts, neither frighteningly huge nor uselessly tiny, and also of her back, I could almost feel my fingertips, one by one, brushing over the tender skin … I talked about the vertigo of the moment when my sister touches my rib and it hardens back into ice … I babbled on like a soldier, bubbling over with warmth … my buddies clustered around … that stuff alone’s gotta help fight the Zones, said Bohler, touched. I … said Sharky, I think I might know her … a good friend of mine on the Masaryk kibbutz … a sabra … Cruel Micka’s eyes were shut. I strutted around the yard like a peacock. She’s graceful! Once in a while, probably … cruel as a cat, but not at heart. She’s mine! No, hers, no, whosever she wants to be!
And then we heard the signal. It was Rudolf. We opened the gate and a car drove into the yard. It stopped by the stairs leading down to the cellar. Rudolf climbed out, collected his checks, and said: Now watch yourselves, an don’t let anything surprise you. An don’t talk if you can help it. Just the four a you here?
Yep.
Good. They know you. Nobody else’s got any business bein here. A pair of men in black stepped out of the car and walked around to the trunk. What cha draggin along the black sheriffs for, Rudolf? I teased. He just laughed. Standing there, scrawny and four-eyed, he looked like a little boy, but I knew he was far from it.
I told you not to be surprised. Those aren’t sheriffs. They come with the skirvolya.
The who?
The medium.
The pair opened the trunk and lifted out a buggy with a canvas over the top. It was about the size of a baby carriage. They pushed it past us to the cellar entrance. I took a look at them and felt queasy. I noticed Bohler was sweating. Both of these guys looked exactly the same. They must’ve been twins. They even moved the same way. Their skin, or whatever it was, was a rubbery grayish-yellow. Their eyes gauged us carefully, unblinkingly. Each gripped the handle with his left hand, in unison. It occurred to me maybe they were machines. The carriage squeaked as it rolled by, something was moving inside it.
I glanced over at Bohler. We didn’t like the looks of it.
Trust me, said Rudolf. If anyone or anything … he chuckled … can lick the Zone, it’s the skirvolya.
The two robots, or whatever they were, lifted the carriage gently down the stairs. We walked behind them. Holding candles. There’s gonna be more than enough light in a minute, Rudolf grinned. We stepped into the darkness. The carriage gave off a glow. Like the color running out of an impaled sun, sprang to my mind. The two men pushed the carriage up to the well’s edge, which in the peculiar light looked like the mouth of a crater, and stepped back.
I fixed my eyes on the winch. That old wooden structure, iron-plated and grooved with age, seemed like something familiar. Something from the human world. I heard the murmur of churning water. The water’s surface sparkled darkly, like a wrapping over the depths, rippling with waves. I hadn’t seen that before. The water was expecting them. The murmuring seemed to fill the cellar as far as I could see. Even the vault above our heads. I’m hearin the Zone breathe, I thought with a shudder. The water was still rippling. As we stood behind the carriage, someone, I guess Bohler, began softly praying, but Rudolf shouted him down. Be quiet, everyone, nothin’s gonna happen to you.